Apple Briefly Took Down Telegram From App Store After a User ‘Planted’ Pornographic Content in a Public Chat

Telegram recently faced a temporary blockade in India ahead of the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) re-examination for the undergraduate (UG) medical aspirants. While the instant messaging platform saw a relatively short ban, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has blocked Telegram's message-editing feature for a longer period of time, claiming frequent misuse. Now, another instance of the misuse of the functionality has surfaced online. A Telegram executive revealed that Apple had taken down Telegram from the App Store after a user posted illegal pornographic content in a public chat using the message-editing feature. However, the company claims that it has since been restored.

Telegram Says the Attacker Used a ‘Technical Trick'

On Tuesday, in a post on X, Telegram's Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Pavel Durov, revealed that Apple briefly took down the instant messaging platform from the App Store on August 3 after a user “planted” illegal pornographic content in a public chat. The company CEO said that Telegram was restored by the Cupertino-based tech giant “within hours”. Durov claimed that the attack was carried out by a “takedown extortionist”, who intended to demand ransom from group owners not to attack their “communities”.

Further, Durov explained that the attacker tricked Telegram's moderation tools by using the platform's message-editing functionality, calling this a “technical trick”. The attacker “planted” AI-modified pornographic content by editing an old message in “an active group chat”. Hence, other members of the group were unable to see and report the illegal content. He said that takedown extortionists use automated accounts to post illegal content in public groups.

Interestingly, the attackers first post the illegal content and then report the same directly to Apple, resulting in the removal of “legitimate communities” on different platforms if the group owners refuse to pay the ransom. Defending Telegram, Durov said, “Illegal pornographic content in Telegram's public groups is not a systemic problem. The fact that attackers must resort to backdated, effectively invisible content and other technical tricks proves this.”

The Telegram executive warned that the takedown extortionists have figured out a way to manipulate Apple. Durov claims that the Tim Cook-led tech giant removed Telegram from the App Store before the messaging platform contacted.

However, this is not the first time that Telegram's message-editing feature has been misused. As previously mentioned, the Indian government briefly banned the platform entirely in June, while blocking its message-editing feature for a longer duration. India's National Testing Agency highlighted that the feature was being misused to “fabricate” evidence and defraud NEET (UG) candidates.